The technology behind earth science observations has advanced to the stage where there are now many sources of geodetic data (e.g., satellite, Global Position System (GPS), seismic networks) being made available by many different agencies (e.g., National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency, Italian Space Agency (ASI)). However, scientists have struggled with being able to derive useful observations from the sea of data due to a lack of viable tools at their disposal that are capable of handling the large quantities of data in a timely and efficient manner.
Furthermore, space agencies from around the globe are regularly launching missions to study the earth system, and data policies are becoming increasingly open. As the costs fall for installing 24-7 monitoring systems, the quantity of geodetic data available is skyrocketing, in effect generating a “tsunami” of data. Likewise, it is expected that the various monitoring systems producing geodetic data will soon be capable of obtaining nearly global coverage of Earth by satellites. This will be achieved by upcoming launches of radar missions from various space agencies across the world. In addition, more GPS networks are installed every year, with increasing numbers capable of delivering real-time high-rate data. Observations from the global constellations of satellites, combined with the ongoing acceleration in observations from dense GPS networks may enable a quantum leap in the contributions of space geodesy to studies of Earth's surface and interior.